vilas PEI3721
What you said is writing on the wall and must be accepted. Everyone else have exercised their right to have an opinion but mostly it is in form of their own preferences, prejudices and lament.
While I also mostly agree with that quote, why is it that
that is the writing on the wall while everyone else's view is only "opinion"? Isn't that just your, er, opinion?
As an aside, through the years I have noticed that pilots enamoured of "A" products usually have opinions similar to that above, while pilots who prefer flying "B" aircraft tend have a more jaundiced/cynical view.
Personally, whether they happen to fly A or B products I prefer pilots who view automation as a mere tool, very useful but still at their service (and not a crutch to be relied on). I trust the guys/gals who retain a firm grasp of the essentials of aviation (aviate, navigate, communicate!) and with the skills/confidence necessary to switch to lower and simpler levels of automation as required, right down to manual flight -which is exactly what Airbus recommends by the way. This requires solid basics of flight, loads of experience, and a good knowledge of one's aircraft's thrust settings and attitudes, which probably means that once in a while you remember to click everything off and hand fly it!
Of course that is just my opinion...